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Ecclestone doubts New Jersey F1 race will happen in 2013

Sebastian Vettel toured the New Jersey track on June 11 in a Infiniti IPL G coupe along with BBC Formula One co-commentator David Coulthard.

British sources are reporting that Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone is far from locking New Jersey into the 2013 F1 racing schedule.

At issue, according to a report by BBC Sport, is the amount of work that still needs to be done on the street course that overlooks the Hudson River and the Manhattan skyline. Ecclestone said on Saturday that the course is not close to being ready.

“No. Definitely, no,” Ecclestone told the BBC News channel's Inside F1 when asked whether he thought New Jersey would happen in 2013. “We'll have to see. I need to go and have another look. What I've seen up to now, and what's been going on, I'm not quite as sure as they are."

Ecclestone then tempered his comments as if to leave the door open for the New Jersey race.

“If they can get [the course] completed and confirm to us it will be done, for sure, they'll be on the calendar," he said.

Race president Tom Cotter has said that the course is ahead of schedule. New Jersey organizers are planning to host the F1 race on the weekend after the Canadian Grand Prix next June.

“I didn't know what to expect, but it is truly unique,” said Vettel, who talked like a man expecting to race in New Jersey in 2013. “Just to look around and think what is coming up in the next 12 months when we come back and everything is going to be ready. So I'm very looking forward to that.”